HOUSTON – We’re getting a new perspective on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, thanks to a passionate environmentalist.

With the help of a volunteer pilot, John Wathen has been documenting the oil spill off the coast of Alabama. What he captures on video, he uploads to YouTube along with narration.

“I was horrified when I looked and saw how many boats there were on the horizon,” said Wathen in once of his most recent videos. “It didn’t seem to be doing anything at all that was effective.”

He started the video by noting smell oil just nine miles off the coast.

Wathen is with the environmental group Friends of Hurricane Creek. In an interview with FOX 26 News, he explained why he’s so passionate about the gulf oil spill.

“We’re a member of the Waterkeeper Aliance,” said Wathen. “As a fellow Waterkeeper, I came down to help document the beaches before hand. We’re going to continue to document throughout the entire event.”

Wathen said he was “shocked beyond words” when he first got a glimpse of the spill.

“For the first time in my environmental career, I feel totally hopeless,” Wathen told FOX 26 News. “I don’t think there’s any way to stop this from hitting the shore.”

“We saw the oil sheen behind the islands in the Mississippi Sound. Later that day tar balls were on the beach on Dolphin Island. Today, we have dolphins washing up dead. I just don’t believe there is anyway to stop this from making landfall.”

So what does the environmentalist think is the worst part of the whole oil spill?

“This is not just an environmentalist issue but a social issue. A community of people have been jeopardized. Their way of life — their quality of life, has been reduced by a large company that doesn’t even house in the United States of America. BP is housed in the Caymen Islands. They don’t even pay the same taxes that we do, and yet they have reduced the quality of life for every citizen near the Gulf of Mexico, and that should be considered a crime.”